


Greet The Sun

by ArgentAconit



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Cape Rouge, Chapstick and Lipgloss, Dukes boat is one of my favorite settings, F/M, Flash Back Memories, Hurt/Comfort, I Tried, Indirect Kiss, Maybe part one of two, Memories that go WAY back, Pre Barn But With Some Post Barn Seasonings?, Pre Relationship, Some bonding, Sorta pre relationship, Yoga, but you know they want to be together, coffee shenanigans, emotional hurt/comfort sorta, tried to write maine with never having been to the ocean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-14 14:16:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16494194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentAconit/pseuds/ArgentAconit
Summary: He pointed a finger at her and shook his hand, wagging it at her, “Impatience isn’t going to get you anywhere with this. Come on, just start breathing with me. Relax the muscles in your body and open up your chest. It does wonders, I promise.” And she did. She shook herself out and followed his pattern of quick deep breaths that tickled her lungs and expanded everything inside of her. It felt… Good; like she was becoming light, like the weight in her shoulders slowly evaporated with each breath. She found her eyes closed after a few minutes of mimicking him. Her ears keyed into the sound of the water lapping, the low putter of a boat engine warming up somewhere in the harbor, the cawing of overhead gulls.Duke’s voice was soft as it joined the other sounds, instructing her, “Stretch your arms out to the side slowly as you breathe in, let them reach up into the sky.” Her body listened to him, fingers splayed wide as they reached for the air around her, palms slowly twisting from facing the deck up to the sky and then toward each other. It felt like static built between her fingers, hummed in her palms, tickled at her wrists. It was almost too much to touch her hands together, but she also didn’t want to stop.





	Greet The Sun

**Author's Note:**

> So I found a thing that I wrote a long time ago and just completely forgot about, so I edited it some and well, here you go I guess?  
> I feel like it's a little incomplete so I might post a second part sometime in the future when everything isn't broken and I can actually make coherent sentences on my keyboard. My drawing tablet is getting so tired of being a writing tablet and honestly, I feel the same way lmao.
> 
> Squint for that Duke/Audrey~

 

_“Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?”_

_“Well, I’m supposed to have a day off, but you know how that-”_

_“Come over in the morning. If it’s your day off you should enjoy it. Wear something comfortable.”_

 

~~~

 

He didn’t really give her a chance to say no when he called last night, but then again, Duke always had a way about him that made her listen. Maybe it was the soulful way he would look at her when he _really_ thought she should listen to his advice, maybe it was just because Duke was Duke and Audrey felt like she could- should, trust him.

 

So, she found him stretching on the deck of the Cape Rouge. He was wearing a thin, dark gray tank top and faded navy, comfort-fit sweatpants. She stopped on the edge of the docks and watched him breathe in deeply and slowly; his released exhale painted the crisp, chilly air in a plume of fog but he seemed to be completely unaware of it. She was almost envious- no, she _was_ envious, because Maine was _cold_ before noon.

 

She watched him bend down, folding himself in half and pushing his fingers down against the rug he had put out sometime since her last visit there. If she didn’t know better she thought he might have tried a handstand, but Duke only showed off those skills when he wanted to impress someone. He didn’t need to impress her, and he didn’t even know she was there, creepily watching him doing whatever he was doing. “Hope I’m not interrupting,” She called over the lap of the treacherous waves that rocked against the rusting hull.

 

His head popped up and turned toward her from his toe touching position and that brilliant open-mouthed smile he liked to wear bloomed onto his face, “No, no you’re just on time.” He stood and dusted his hands off in front of himself as he appraised her, “Is that coffee?”

 

Audrey looked down at the two cups in her hands and nodded, “Yeah, I hope you don’t mind- it isn’t from the coffee shop, I just reused the cups. You’d think at some point I would get some thermoses,” She furrowed her eyebrows as she turned the Styrofoam cups in her hands. Which one was hers again? “One of these has peppermint in it.”

 

Duke collected one from her once she crossed the gap between boat and dock, her feet finally standing on the gently bobbing vessel. He raised it to his face to sniff at the small opening in the plastic lid and tipped it to her in a gesture of thanks, “Not this one.”

 

She watched him take a sip as he turned to go back, only to halt completely. His face twisted up as he moved to give the cup back to her, forcing himself to swallow what she assumed he thought was terrible coffee, “Cinnamon.” He scraped his tongue over his teeth and made a mock sound of disgust as she took it back from him with her free hand, an amused smile on her face as she watched him try to shake out the taste.

 

Audrey’s expression crinkled to match his after her own taste test of the other coffee. It certainly wasn’t flavored, and it _definitely_ didn’t have any sweetener. Not that Audrey was one to complain about black coffee, but she had been expecting a sweet peppermint flavor, “Ugh, black coffee is a real kick in the ass when you’re expecting something different.”

 

“I thought you said the other one was peppermint?”

 

“I thought it _was_ peppermint. Here, my tongue can’t handle another shock like that,” She gave him her cup and he immediately used it to wash out the cinnamon flavor in his mouth. Duke effectively burned himself with it, but the grimace was quickly replaced with relief as the bitter bite of unflavored coffee snuffed out the cinnamon. She snorted as she looked down at the rim of her lid, “You left about half of your chapstick, Duke.”

 

“Hey, your lip gloss is all over this one, you don’t see me complaining about it,” He raised his eyebrows pointedly as he drank from it again.

 

Audrey hid a smile behind the rim of her cup, but she couldn’t stop the subtle shake of her shoulders as she looked at him. Where his lips had touched the cup she could see the soft raspberry hue of her lip gloss on his mouth, “It’s not a bad color on you. Tell me if you ever want to borrow it.”

 

He rolled his eyes and rubbed his thumb over his bottom lip to try and swipe the offending cosmetic from his face but Audrey could see the amusement in his eyes as he looked at her, “It’s good to see you in such a good mood so early in the day.”

 

She sipped at her coffee and tried not to think too much about Duke’s vanilla bean chapstick smearing against the quick swipe of lip gloss she had put on in the car, “Well, I’m trying to be optimistic. You did call me last night to tell me to come over so early in the day. I can only hope that something good is going to happen, right? Besides, it’s a new day and nothing has happened yet. I’m trying this thing where I don’t anticipate the worst when I check my phone every time I wake up.”

 

They both knew how that could be by now. So many things happened in Haven, and despite his early-on, adamant denials, Duke had been pulled into her little ragtag team of trouble solvers. He had become an integral part of the group and she couldn’t imagine what it would be like if he really did refuse to help them ever again. The thought of watching the Cape Rouge disappear over the horizon twisted her stomach in a way that made even her coffee seem less appealing. Duke stepped into her lost gaze out to the small exit of the bay and she found herself focusing on his slight frown, “Let’s just forget about Haven for a few hours, alright? It isn’t good to keep worrying over what trouble is going to come up next. Live for today and we’ll figure it out as it comes, right?”

 

Her lips quirked up into a meager smile as she shifted her fingers over her cup. The heat of the drink seeped into the front of her jacket where it settled against her stomach, “Right. You’re right,” He squeezed her shoulder with one of his strong hands and she had to resist the urge to cover it with her own. That seemed to be one of the hardest things to do lately, resist him. “So, what did you call me all the way out here for, Duke? It can’t possibly be for some of my terrible coffee.”

 

His smile warmed his face and her chest as it made another appearance, “Oh, I don’t know. You make coffee better than most of the staff at the Gull. We just have to make sure you get your flavoring put into the right tins.” He lifted his cup and took a large swig, having to swallow fast so he didn’t burn his tongue all over again. “Yeah,” he coughed into the back of his hand and wiped away some mist from his eyes, “Definitely better than Delphine’s brew. I swear that girl can scorch water.”

 

She chuckled and looked down at his bare feet and her dusty training shoes to hide the slight flush of embarrassment she felt for his small praise. “She’s still figuring out that fancy espresso machine you had installed; give her a couple more days. Hell, I couldn’t even figure that monstrosity out.”

 

Duke’s toes flexed in front of her shoes and she looked up to see him looking down at them too, “Well, I have something else to teach you first. Maybe if you do well with this we can see what happens when I unleash you on the Gull to make us some spiked lattes.” He looked up through his dark lashes and the light caught his eyes in just the right way to paint them in a beautiful russet hue. It was unfair how beautiful he looked. From the slowly greying roots of his hair to the sun-bleached blond tips, to his little neat rows of facial hair and his broad shoulders. She distracted herself with another sip of coffee that whispered the warm scent of vanilla over sweet cinnamon.

 

“Yeah? You sure you want me to break your precious coffee maker?” She teased, blue-grey eyes smiling at him as she bent to place her drink on the ever-present low table nearby. She remembered a few games of friendly poker there and hoped maybe she could have another sometime soon. Who knows, maybe she’ll take Duke up on his offer of strip poker and let everyone have a little fun for once. Maybe not on the deck where the whole harbor could watch them though. “What do you have in mind then? Going to show me how to breathe and twist myself into pretzels?”

 

“Actually, yes, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. But maybe we’ll just snack on the pretzels, instead of turning into them. You’re definitely not limber enough to try it. Come on, shoes off, jacket too,” He set his cup down beside hers and clapped his hands, stretching them out to take her jacket as she reluctantly shucked it off, revealing an old olive green tank she ran in. He took the jacket from her and draped it over her favorite vinyl, sun-faded, red bench seat with a pleasant smile and let her tuck her shoes under the edge of the table before he corralled her to the rug he had been standing on when she found him. She huffed at his eager attitude but smiled to herself as she let him order her around and direct her to where he wanted her to stand.

 

They ended up standing so that they were facing each other with about seven feet between them. Seven feet of chilly, foggy air that smelled like an old saltwater fish tank and whatever mess one of the neighboring boats had left on their deck overnight. Yet, despite the somewhat sour odor, she felt the peace of the bay drape over her. “Alright, what are we doing?” She slapped her hands against the sides of her thighs without any kind of rhythm and Duke smiled big and wide at her in response.

 

He pointed a finger at her and shook his hand, wagging it at her, “Impatience isn’t going to get you anywhere with this. Come on, just start breathing with me. Relax the muscles in your body and open up your chest. It does wonders, I promise.” And she did. She shook herself out and followed his pattern of quick deep breaths that tickled her lungs and expanded everything inside of her. It felt… Good; like she was becoming light, like the weight in her shoulders slowly evaporated with each breath. She found her eyes closed after a few minutes of mimicking him. Her ears keyed into the sound of the water lapping, the low putter of a boat engine warming up somewhere in the harbor, the cawing of overhead gulls.

 

Duke’s voice was soft as it joined the other sounds, instructing her, “Stretch your arms out to the side slowly as you breathe in, let them reach up into the sky.” Her body listened to him, fingers splayed wide as they reached for the air around her, palms slowly twisting from facing the deck up to the sky and then toward each other. It felt like static built between her fingers, hummed in her palms, tickled at her wrists. It was almost too much to touch her hands together, but she also didn’t want to stop.

 

Her breathing had slowed and it felt like she could hold it for hours if she just breathed a little bit deeper. Duke’s hands on her forearms should have caused her to jerk out of whatever serene feeling was filling her up, but his warm caress felt natural, expected even- welcomed. He pulled her arms down on her next exhale, keeping her hands together with his steady guiding touch. The static traveled down from her hands and danced around the edges of his palms, frolicked around his thumbs, “That’s great,” She could feel the air thrum between them as he spoke, “Do it again, slower.”

 

His hands rested on her upper arms as she slowly dropped her hands back down, finishing her breath. She could feel the inside edges of his toes brushing against the outsides of her feet with how closely he was standing. She could smell his cologne- _it felt like she could hear his heart beating_.

 

Her lungs pulled at the air and her hands followed this new movement; stretching and searching lazily like she was grazing her fingertips over someone’s skin with a feather-light touch. Chills erupted over her skin, but they weren’t because of the cold. Duke’s hands guided her arms a little further back and she felt the tension leave her chest as he cradled the soft undersides of her arms in his palms, urging her arms up at the speed he thought was proper.

 

His exhale breezed through her hair and something clicked inside of her, stalling her breath. Audrey’s eyes fluttered open, arms stretched wide into a pronounced Y shape as her fingers twitched. Soft warm light filtered through green leaves and pine needles, it lit up the red and pale white barks around her, and another puff of soft breath raced over her scalp. She smiled and leaned back against the person holding her as she dropped her arms down to lace her fingers between the ones resting over her stomach, “Wasn’t it beautiful how they worked together? Light and darkness,” Her voice was different, but it was still hers.

 

A chuckle rattled through her shoulders and arms tightened around her stomach, fingers squeezing her own briefly before untangling from her, “You are a true artist, love.” Fingers edged her vision as they came up to push her hair away from her neck, a dry mouth pressed against the exposed juncture of her shoulder. “I cannot wait to see what we create together next.”

 

She came to with the roaring sound of blood rushing through her ears and a muffled voice anxiously calling her name. Warmth covered her cheek and slid across the back of her shoulders, pressed into her right arm and sunk into her lower back. “ _Au….ey!_ ” She pinched her eyebrows and turned her face into the warmth radiating from her right. Fingers rubbed up and down her cheek urgently and tapped when they figured that didn’t work in rousing her.

 

Audrey twitched away from the annoyance, “ _Audrey!_ ” …Duke?

 

She blinked and her vision slowly focused in, finding Duke’s anxious face above her. What happened? She felt something wet slide between her lips and reached up to brush it away, only to find blood on her fingertips when she raised them into view, “Duke?” She asked, confused and voice a little breathless.

 

“Oh thank the gods, each and every one of them,” The words rushed out of his mouth as he crushed her to his chest for the briefest of moments. “You collapsed and you were shaking - you scared the shit out of me,” His eyes flitted over her face as he took her wrist between his fingers, testing her pulse. Why, she didn’t know but whatever he found seemed to break him from his panic. Audrey clamped her eyes shut tight when he stopped blocking the muted light that pierced through the fog like sharp needles.

 

“Ugh, I thought I was done with these things,” She whined. Duke helped her sit up, but didn’t let her go just yet. Audrey didn’t mind, especially considering he was an amazing buffer against the cold.

 

“ _This has been happening?!_ Just how long has this been going on, Audrey?” There was an incredulous note to his voice and suddenly she felt horrible for not cluing him in on her problems.

 

“I don’t… When Claire?” She started, pinching her eyes closed even tighter as her headache spiked. Her hands came up to cradle her temples as she groaned, “Ugh, _my head_.” Duke swept her up princess style into his arms and walked her over to the bench seat. The movement made her nauseous but once she was seated she immediately missed the warmth of Duke’s body. She would have reached out for him but she had enough sense to her still not to turn into a clingy child.

 

“I’m calling Nathan.” He said it like she had no choice in the matter and she raised her hand to catch his wrist weakly. It was enough to stop him in his tracks to the lower deck.

 

“Nathan…. Nathan doesn’t know. The last time this happened was at the house, the one that was alive,” She took a slow breath that rattled in her lungs but took the edge off of the needles piercing her brain, “I don’t know what triggered it this time. Claire told me to stop after that house- I was trying so hard to remember Lucy, and Lucy’s memories helped us get out of there. She said it could kill me if I kept pushing, so I stopped. But this… This doesn’t feel like a Lucy memory. I didn’t try to do this.”

 

Audrey swallowed and tried to keep her stomach from churning after so much talking. She wanted to lay back down and just rest, but Duke was there, kneeling between her feet and holding her face in his hands. She couldn’t tell if that tremble was him or if she was shivering, “Then I’m calling an ambulance. I don’t care who’s memory it was, you’re still bleeding Audrey, I’m going to get you some help- medical help. _That you need._ ”

 

She sagged against his hands and nodded, knowing he wouldn’t let her step foot off of the Cape Rouge unless he thought she was going to be okay. His hands disappeared and he stood, jogging down to the crew quarters as she leaned back against the bench, hands fumbling to bring her jacket around her body. While he was gone she focused on keeping her breathing even and shamelessly used the inside of the hood to wipe at the slow-pouring blood coming from her nose. It was dark so if it stained it wouldn’t be obvious anyway.

 

Duke rejoined her moments later and pressed a worn out bandana into her hand as he ended his call. He dropped down into the open space beside her and turned so he could pull her side into his chest, sharing his body heat. He must have pulled on one of his cardigans because she felt knitted fabric under her arm where he pulled her in against him. “They’ll be here in eight.”

 

“Won’t they be happy to know it isn’t a trouble this time,” She teased as she pressed her cheek against the front of his shoulder. She drew her feet up onto the seat and tried to tuck them under her raised hip while Duke adjusted her jacket. He draped his other arm over her and let her worm her way into the center of his chest. His heartbeat was fast but strong and she tilted her head just a little more to fine tune her hearing. She matched her breathing to his the longer they sat that way, while Duke kept fidgeting in his seat.

 

He finally muttered out a response, like he had just realized she spoke to him, “It may not be one, but it’s still troubling.”

 

She quirked the corner of her lips behind his bandana, “Ha, you still have a sense of humor.”

 

Duke’s body shifted against hers in a way that suggested he was shrugging, “They told me to keep you awake. My humor is one of the few ways I can do that. I can’t give you alcohol, and I’m not allowed to let you stand up again until they get here, so I guess you’re just stuck with me.”

 

“I don’t mind. You’re warm- which isn’t fair by the way. We were wearing basically the same things, how come you’re not cold?” She jabbed a pointed finger against his chest sharply and he grunted like she had actually hurt him.

 

Duke turned his head down into her hair and rubbed absently at her arm over her jacket, “Mind over matter. I’m from Maine, you’re from Boston, or wherever it is you grew up. Oh, and if you haven’t noticed, I’m a lot bigger than you are.”

 

“Oh no, I’ve noticed,” She answered immediately, “I knew you would be bigger than me just from the shirt you lent me when you fished me out of the harbor. I felt like a child trying to wear one of her father’s work shirts. Practically swimming in blue cotton.”

 

“You were pretty cute in it,” Duke smiled against her hair and Audrey felt her lips tip up again in response. “You were lucky I happened to see you fall in. I almost detoured that day to go- well, to do something else. Totally legal, by the way.” They both chuckled because they knew it definitely wasn’t legal, but they also both knew that Audrey wasn’t going to try and arrest him for it, not now. Probably not ever.

 

“Of course it was. You’re an upstanding citizen of the law, aren’t you?”

 

“Well, if I wasn’t then I must be now. Ever since you moved in above my bar I haven’t taken the Rouge out of local waters. All work and no play lately- we should take a cruise out of here sometime. Get away from the crazy and just do something fun. Lord knows you of all people deserve it.”

 

The approaching wail of the ambulance reached their ears and Duke sat up a little straighter against her, his fingers tightening around her stomach and arm. She pressed her face into the blue bandana and sighed, “Do you think Nathan is with them?”

 

“Probably. Someone must have called him or he heard dispatch mention it over the scanner,” Duke said. She could hear his apprehensiveness and stretched out the hand that wasn’t smudged in blood to squeeze his bicep.

 

“Are you coming with me when they load me up? I don’t know if I can handle his anxiety right now… and I don’t want him to tear into you when he thinks this is your fault. He always likes to point fingers before that cop brain of his kicks into gear.” He squeezed her even closer in answer, footsteps thundering down the dock as help grew even closer.

 

“Whatever you need me to do, Audrey, I’ll do it.”


End file.
